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Mettle Maker #398
What’s the weekly mettle maker? Training tips and educational information in support of our free programs, that’s what! What’s mettle? According the American Heritage Dictionary, mettle is, “The ability to meet a challenge or persevere under demanding circumstances; determination or resolve.”
Heritage Self-Defense: The Hook Mettle Drill. In Heritage Self-Defense we learn martial sequences called mettle drills. They’re rather like the kata or forms that are seen in traditional martial arts, except they’re more like flow drills, and they’re usually done with a partner. Here is the blue bandana mettle drill known as…
The Hook Mettle Drill
1. Scarf Hold (he crams face)
2. Leg-only Top Wrist Lock (he tries to roll)
3. Chest Pressure (keeps rolling, you roll over)
4. Top Wrist Lock (he uses catch grip, you apply elbow to clavicle)
5. Double Wrist Lock (he grabs pants)
6. Short Arm Scissors (he doesn’t tap)
7. Shark Fin (he doesn’t tap)
8. Figure -4 Neck Breaker (he doesn’t tap)
9. Arm Bar (he doesn’t tap)
10. Short Arm Scissors (end of drill)
Do you know all of these moves and counters? Sounds like you could stand to take a martial arts class. And, as luck would have it, we offer a 100% free mind-body-spirit martial arts program! Join the martial arts club in Richmond, VA or click here to sign up for the Heritage self-defense distance learning program!
Heritage Fitness: Shoulders, knees, and lower back are the three most common trouble spots for aches and pains. When injured or in pain, always seek the advice of a qualified health professional. But if you’re just starting to get a twinge, and you’d like to reign it in before it gets out of hand, check out the home remedy exercises in the the video on the left. Want more old-school training tips, or a free fitness coach to help develop an old-school fitness program that suits your specific needs and goals? Click here to sign up for one of our free programs!
Heritage Wildwood Outdoor Skills: How do you age tracks and sign? A video will be released on the YouTube channel on Monday at 5 PM. But the reality is, this isn’t something you can learn particularly well from a blog post or a video.
The best thing you can do for yourself is actually go out there and put your eyeballs on some tracks and sign. Make some tracks, and follow them home. Maybe that’s later the same day, the next day, or a couple of days later. How have they changed? How do rain, sun, and wind change the game?
You don’t need to be in an undeveloped area – you can practice in the heart of the city or out in the suburban wilds. Just make some tracks and snap some twigs in your back yard, in a turfed median strip, or in a corner of the local park where nobody walks. Check on them a couple of times a day for a week or so and see how they change.
Looking for a free adult outdoor skills program? Click here to sign up!
Holy Communion is LIVE on YouTube every Sunday at 10 am EASTERn. Click HERE to watch live. To view and print a copy of the program for holy communion, CLICK HERE.
Homily for Palm Sunday, 3/24/24 – Father Mitch
Readings: Mk 11:1-10, Is 50:4-7, Ps 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24, Phil 2:6-11, Mk 14:1—15:47
Mark 11:1-10 (World English Bible, Catholic Edition)
1 When they came near to Jerusalem, to Bethsphage† and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples 2 and said to them, “Go your way into the village that is opposite you. Immediately as you enter into it, you will find a young donkey§ tied, on which no one has sat. Untie him and bring him. 3 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs him;’ and immediately he will send him back here.”
4 They went away, and found a young donkey tied at the door outside in the open street, and they untied him. 5 Some of those who stood there asked them, “What are you doing, untying the young donkey?” 6 They said to them just as Jesus had said, and they let them go.
7 They brought the young donkey to Jesus and threw their garments on it, and Jesus sat on it. 8 Many spread their garments on the way, and others were cutting down branches from the trees and spreading them on the road. 9 Those who went in front and those who followed cried out, “Hosanna!‡ Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!* 10 Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
During the procession of the palms today, we read the story of Jesus’ entry in Jerusalem as related in the Gospel of Mark. Jesus gives the disciples instructions as to how they will find a young donkey for him to ride into the city, and the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9 is fulfilled: “Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King comes to you! He is righteous, and having salvation; lowly, and riding on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Brothers and sisters, our Savior Jesus Christ went to some lengths to ensure that this prophecy was fulfilled for us. This Palm Sunday, let’s give him a moment to meditate upon this.
According to St. Ambrose, the donkey “on which no one has sat” is a reference to Gentiles who have never been yoked to the God of Abraham.¹ Like the ass’s colt, they are literally outsiders. The animal is in a village a short distance from Jerusalem, outside the gate, tethered in the street and awaiting the arrival of Jesus’ disciples to lead him into the city. The Gentiles are outside the ethnic and religious circle of the Hebrews, outside the gate of salvation, and waiting to be led inside by the apostles.
Perhaps we might read this even more broadly than St. Ambrose suggests, and allow the young donkey to stand in for all of us. Aren’t we all standing alone and unguarded in the open street? Are we not surrounded on every side by the distracting hubbub of everyday life, by jobs, bills, broken down cars, homework, and chores? Like the little donkey, don’t we watch the traffic passing by – the endless parade of YouTube videos, cable television, reality shows, and podcasts? Doesn’t an endless parade of disordered ideas, bizarre beliefs, chaotic attitudes, and misleading perceptions march by us all day long? At least the donkey watched an actual parade of people go by – merchants and vendors, cops and criminals, priests, politicians, and paupers, the good the bad and the ugly. At least the donkey looked at real people and events rather than fake news and screens. At least the donkey observed the real world rather than a virtual one. Regardless, here we stand, very much like that donkey, tethered in the open street, ripe for the taking. Will we be led astray by the culture? Or will we be taken up by the disciples of Jesus?
The Gospel says, “They brought the young donkey to Jesus and threw their garments on it, and Jesus sat on it.” Remember now, the passage says this is a donkey upon whom no one has sat. This is a wild donkey. And this donkey calmly submits. Are we going to submit, or are we going to resist? Are we going to tame our wild nature and put on the baptismal garments? Are we going to allow ourselves to be draped in the garments of baptism and wrapped up in the Gospel? Or are we going to buck and thrash, bray and bolt?
This world, if we allow it to, will leave us tethered by the cords of sin and death, alone in the street and at the mercy of the crowd. Let us pray that we can be docile and led to Jesus. For his yoke is easy and his burden is light, and we will be led to salvation.
§ Some translations read “colt”
† 11:1 TR & NU read “Bethphage” instead of “Bethsphage”
‡ 11:9 “Hosanna” means “save us” or “help us, we pray”
* 11:9 Psalms 118:25-26
¹ “Homily by St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, Book IX, from Sundays and Festivals with the Fathers of the Church, D.G. Herbert, translator (1901) accessed at https://archive.org/details/sundaysandfestiv00hubeuoft/mode/2up